CG on alert for floating containers
PTI, PANAJI | 30 June 2013 15:30 IST
Indian Coast Guard is looking out for containers that might be driven towards the Goa-Konkan coast after falling off from a wrecked ship off Goa coast.
MV MOL Comfort, a container carrier owned by M/s Mitsui Osaka Lines, Japan, laden with 4,268 containers and reportedly on a voyage from Colombo to Jeddah, broke up in mid-sea earlier this week near Goa coast.
Goa government had earlier said there were reports that the ship's cargo consisted of arms and ammunition.
On June 24, a part of the ship was reported about 530 nautical miles from Panaji.
Coast Guard Deputy Inspector General S D Bhanot said that the containers might sink midway as the ship was far off.
"There is no fear that they might reach the coast, they will sink midway. ICG is keeping a close watch," he said.
Smit Salvage Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based salvage company, is in the process of securing two parts of the ship, which drifted apart, and towing them away to safety, a senior official of Goa government said.
Authorities in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts of Maharashtra too are on alert.
"We have asked the fishermen and people living in the coastal belt not to touch any container, if it floats onto shore," said Captain V H Ingle, a port official of Maharashtra government.
